Football roundup: 'Career-defining game' helps Fowlerville beat Adrian
Fowlerville senior Brendan Ray had what his football coach called a “career-defining game” Friday night in a 21-14 victory at Adrian.
Ray caught seven passes for 113 yards and one touchdown, while also intercepting a pass on defense.
“Brendan Ray was a stud on both sides of the ball,” Fowlerville coach Matt Copeland said. “The touchdown catch he made was a heck of an individual effort. He hasn’t played a lot of defense in his three-year varsity career. Today he made an interception on just an impressive play. It was a great senior leadership moment for him.”
Ray wasn’t the only player who had a huge performance against an Adrian team that entered the night with a 6-1 record.
Junior quarterback Wyatt Soli was 16-for-23 for 263 yards and three touchdowns, junior receiver Will Shrader caught three passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns, and senior Adam Aeschliman had his fourth interception of the season while making a team-high 11 tackles and catching four passes for 45 yards.
The Gladiators have won two straight games since starting the season 1-5.
“We finally got to the point where we beat a team that was better on paper than us,” Copeland said. “Lansing Eastern, I’m giving them a lot of credit for what they’re trying to accomplish, but we were just better than them. Tonight we picked up a win on the road after a tough drive. Sitting at 2-5, the boys could have packed it in and said, ‘Yeah, let’s just move on to basketball season and wrestling season.’ They’re committed to each other and doing things the right way.”
After falling behind 7-0, Fowlerville took a 14-7 lead into halftime when Soli connected with Shrader for touchdown passes of 57 and 28 yards. An 11-yard touchdown pass to Ray made it 21-7 in the third quarter.
At 3-5, Fowlerville still has slim hopes of making the state playoffs. The Gladiators are 39th in Division 3 playoff points, with the top 32 qualifying.
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Hartland 42, Canton 21
Quarterback James Butzier ran for three touchdowns and threw for one, as Hartland improved to 3-5 and maintained an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs. The Eagles are 40th in Division 1 playoff points heading into a KLAA crossover Friday night at Livonia Stevenson.
Nevan Anderer caught a touchdown pass from Butzier and Colin Jewell caught one from backup quarterback Lucas Warr. Kyle Pies had a touchdown run.
Jack Lansing, Alex Criscuolo, Saleem Jackson and Easton Culver intercepted passes for Hartland.
“Both teams tonight had the same record,” Hartland coach Thomas Stevenson said. “It was clear one team was still fighting and one team maybe was focusing on winter sports. I’m glad our kids are continuing to fight. We told them before the game and all week you could maybe put yourself in a position to be the last team to squeak in. Looking at everything, that could be the case.”
Richland Gull Lake 38, Pinckney 14
Pinckney scored a season-high 14 points while falling to 0-8. The Pirates will try to avoid their first winless season since 2005 when they visit Ann Arbor Pioneer (5-3) next Friday.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Football roundup: 'Career-defining game' helps Fowlerville beat Adrian
